He had locked himself in his room at the Clarion Hotel for the better part of two days and spiked a 104-degree fever.

Keith, Vanderbilt's track and cross country coach since 2006, had previously slept for the duration of an eight-hour drive to Fayetteville, Ark. He was there to attend the NCAA Indoor Championships, but he had yet to see one race.

By day two, he had started sending text messages to his assistant coaches that made no sense, random letters and numbers that amounted to gibberish. This was no garden-variety case of the flu. Something serious was impacting his mind and body."